An Elegy for a Stuck Pig

It's about time

2011-09-29T13:53:00.001-07:00

...for my annual blog post. There. I did it.

Let the witch hunts begin

2010-04-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

I think it's funny how North American Christians think that we are persecuted. It goes without saying that we don't have a right to claim persecution in light of what the early church and the church in many other parts of the world actually experienced and still experiences. Those who would claim that the church is or is going to be persecuted will likely assume that it is in the area of limiting our practice of religious freedom. They (we) will say that the government will force us to acquiesce to the "pro-choice agenda" or the "homosexual agenda" or the "liberal agenda" and rescind grant money/ charge us with hate crimes if we take "Christian stands". Well who woulda thunk our first chance to to actually get persecuted with a stiffer punishment than fines or the rescinding of funds (that we shouldn't have accepted in the first place, but that's another story) would actually come from the issue of immigration. Immigration, the Christian non-issue that only got visibility as a morality issue in the last presidential election, by one candidate, Sam Brownback, and he was quickly shut down by the Republican majority. But now, with the signing into law of Arizona's immigration enforcement bill into law, it is foreseeable that Christians who actually want to do justice and love their neighbor could get thrown into prison for aiding illegal immigrants. And by "aid", I mean, "taking illegal immigrants to church". Yes, driving a car with an illegal immigrant in it in Arizona will be forbidden in 90 days. Pardon the reductio ad Hitlerum, but this whole situation sounds like the people who put their livelihood at stake for harboring those that were being trampled underfoot in the Holocaust. And yeah, this is a reactionary post done without much prior thought or research, so I apologize for any possible hyperbole.

2010-03-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

So this is the second video post. Hopefully as I get more comfortable with this format, these will get better and have less "ums" in them.

New video format

2010-03-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

To anyone who cares, I have decided to try to convert this into a video blog format. I figure it can't be too hard to record for a minute a day than trying to figure out something insightful and witty to write. Here's the first try.

Uhhh...Where is your God?

2009-06-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Does anyone ever get the vibe that in some Christian traditions, they've got their theology so worked out, so rationalized, so explained, that any seeming tangible word or action of God today is seen by them as a heresy? Not to knock some of my friends, but I see this in a lot of Presbyterian circles. Sure, it's great to believe in Christ's atonement, and the working of the Holy Spirit, but what exactly do you believe He does for, with, and in you? Not what he did. Not the miracles performed thousands of years ago.

I remember being raised to avoid Gnostic heresies, who taught that the material world was nothing but an evil prison for the spiritual world. It now seems that now, people are leaning to an extreme anti-gnosticism, where they seem to place absolutely no value in a living, active spirit world, even if they claim to believe current work of the Holy Spirit.

Is it just that our definitions of God seem to be different, or are some of my friends atheists, without knowing it? Also, what about St. John of the Cross?

Honesty

2009-06-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

is one thing that is really hard for me right now.

Getting Better

2009-05-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

When I went to my blog's page for the first time in a while to update it (gasp), I had to note with humor that my internet filter (K9) blocked my profile picture from showing up, for whatever reason. When I added the "Followers" gadget to my page, it was also blocked with this message:

http://ps.friendconnect.gmodules.com/ps/ifr?container=friendconnect... is blocked because it is currently categorized as: Social Networking

I guess this has something to do with cutting off things that lead us to sin, but sometimes, it gets damn annoying.

Alex, I may be talking to you about this sometime soon.

Eventually I'll be one of the faithful...

2009-05-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

...bloggers who do their thing regularly, but for now, I may settle for one post a year. So I found out about this band in the past couple days called Soul-Junk.

1. They're a Christian band

2. They don't actually suck

3. They're quite prolific, starting in the early 90's as lo-fi alternative rock, progessing to experimental hip-hop, and now an avant mixture of both.

4. They use verbatim Bible quotations for a lot of their lyrics. As in, their latest album's lyrics were Psalms 1-23. Today I downloaded their renditions of Exodus 1-16 off their blog, and they've also covered Genesis, some more of Psalms, and parts of Proverbs.

5. It's not a gimmick. The main guy does this cause he thinks that Jesus is cool, and Scripture is cool, and worship is cool, so he's setting it to music. And he's teaching his kids to worship through music. He has videos of it. It's pretty awesome.

6. I wish my parents let us form a family band and play worship songs in our basement.

More Prayer, More Unity

2008-04-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, a bunch of us gathered and prayed for an hour or so. There was no agenda, other than the fact that we were not watching a movie, as we normally do on Saturday nights. We prayed about love and hate, doubt and faith, the world, and ourselves. We gave thanks, and we asked for forgiveness. Everyone agreed at the end that this was a good thing, and we were glad we did this. Why then, is it so hard for things like this to happen more often? I know a few reasons why corporate prayer doesn't happen except at the predetermined times I make for it. I don't want it to be that way though. I want God to rest where I am, and I can see no better way for that to happen then when I and other believers are gathered to together, talking to God.

A side note: I don't intend for this to be a theology blog where I discuss random points of the Christian faith. Blogs like Resurgence and Pyromaniacs do that way better (although they've been skimping on new content lately; you're more likely to find a sermon by Edwards or Spurgeon on either site than anything that fits into my Internet reading attention span). I just want to talk about what's going on in my life, when I feel like it. If I just talk about God and things relating to Him, I suppose that's a good thing in the long run. It means that I'm at least thinking about my faith regularly, even if I don't act very faithful.

Ahhhhhhhhh! A Prayer.

2008-04-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Lord, save me:

1. From stress put upon me by the end of this my undergrad career
2. From undue stress I put on myself
3. From lethargy
4. From the temptation that comes from a mix of stress and lethargy
5. From the feeling of being trapped by my busy life
6. From the chaos of the every day
7. Because of your bountiful mercy and grace
8. Because You are who You are
9. By your unfailing love

Amen.

Where's the Line?

2008-04-23T10:35:00.002-07:00

Where is the line drawn between coming clean with one's deep secrets, and voyeurism?

Some Facts About Myself (Redux)

2008-04-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

So two day ago I posted a list of facts about myself. This list contained some of my deeply personal struggles with sin and how I need God to conquer them. I originally intended for it to be seen by a limited audience, and then possibly expand the audience, but after listening to some advice and some concerns, I took the list off. It is still saved on my hard drive, so if you want to know more about me in that regard, I will be happy to show you. For now though, I'll settle for revealing myself bit by bit during the course of my blogging, than shocking you with everything in one fell swoop.